Energy Sec. Perry Taps U.S. Petroleum Reserves

DALLAS (CBSDFW/AP) – Energy Department Secretary Rick Perry has moved to tap the strategic petroleum reserves to help relieve the gasoline shortages due to storm-related refinery shutdowns in south Texas.

According to a release from the Dept. of Energy, Sec. Perry executed an emergency agreement to access the reserves along with the Phillips 66 Lake Charles refinery.

“The order authorizes 200,000 barrels of sweet crude and 300,000 barrels of sour crude old to be drawn down from SPR’s West Hackberry site and delivered via pipeline to the Phillips 66 refinery” says DOE spokeswoman Jessica Szymanski.

Colonial Pipeline says it plans to shut down a key line that supplies gasoline to the South due to storm-related refinery shutdowns and Harvey’s effect on its facilities west of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

The Georgia-based company said in a statement that it expects to shut off the line Thursday. The company had already closed down another line that transports primarily diesel and aviation fuels.